The Most Luxurious Shower in City 17
by Wheatley Had Some Good Ideas
Summary: Alyx and Gordon. Romance, humor, and Gordon Freeman in a towel, laadieeees. This is a character-chemistry focused story. A little spicy, but not so dirty as to impune the user agreement of conduct for this website...I am 98% sure...I've never posed here before. Rated M for sexual implications. Feedback welcome :) I want to improve my writing skills.


A monitor bathed the dark lab in an artificial blue glow, highlighting the figure of a man hunched, in a deep focus. Gordon squinted into the screen. A rare lull in the action meant he finally had a chance to read Dr. Kleiner's raw data about the phenomenon radiating within the citadel, (and put his degree to use for once).

Alyx noticed the screen's light from the hallway and padded quietly into the room to investigate, expecting to see Dr. Kleiner obsessing over some new development. She had showered off the day's gore, and even changed into cotton sleeping clothes, fairly positive that the combine's recent retreat meant she would not be springing into action tonight. She stopped at the surprise of finding Gordon there. Still in his HEV suit.

She smiled, folding her arms, amused. He usually looked positively heroic whacking enemy threats to death with his crowbar in that suit. But here he was, _just a nerd in armor, at a desk, _she thought. She tried to picture him, in the same pose, same glasses, at a desk, but wearing a lab coat, collared shirt, and black tie, like the men in Dr. Kleiner's photos. Maybe he was a rolled-up-sleeves kind of guy. Maybe he would leave his top shirt button undone and let the tie loosen at the end of a long day of doing...physicist stuff? Whatever he did before all this.

"Gordon?" She asked. He startled slightly at the unexpected presence. She grinned at his reaction, "Sorry, didn't mean to sneak up."

"It's fine," said Gordon, adjusting his glasses, "Just catching up on the..." he gestured at the screen, searching for a layman's term for the dense data, "...news." He looked back to the monitor. Then, sensing her still watching him, glanced back at her. "What?"

"Do you always wear that?" She asked, "Like, even to bed? Do you pull your wittle jammies on over the top of it?" she teased.

He smiled at her joke. "Uh...well, I haven't had much of a chance to get out of it yet." He said sheepishly. Alyx's mind instinctively started constructing a flirtatious joke to play off his answer. But, she decided it would have been too easy, and too direct.

"When was the last time you got to take a shower?" She asked instead.

Gordon thought about it. Between the hectic entanglements with zombies, the combine, and their various drones, he had not dared remove his protective shell for more than a few minutes at a time. The call of nature, and the necessary emergency medical procedures being the only breaks. "Would you judge me if the answer was in years instead of days?"

Alyx grimaced slightly at his answer, then laughed. Freeman did not really have years of grime to be embarrassed about, considering the bizarre gap in time G-Man had kept him in stasis. But it still felt like a shameful admission.

"Well, we do have a shower working here, now. If you're interested, I can show you." She gestured to the door. Gordon looked back at the charts he had been scrutinizing. Then down at his suit.

His second skin took care of him in many ways with all its mysterious sensors and injections. It even seemed to be wicking away his sweat and self cleaning internally some how. He had noticed that all of the blood from past injuries that should have painted its interior like a Jackson Pollock by now, seemed to disappear with time. Perhaps, the same nanotech, that tended to his wounds and repaired the suit itself, was janitorial staff as well. But admitting out loud how long it had been, made him feel it was probably time to have a proper, old fashioned rinse.

Gordon followed Alyx up rickety stairs to a section of the base he had yet to explore. "You're lucky," said Alyx,"we finally got a hot water tank hooked up and working. Probably the most luxurious shower in City 17. The temperature options used to be between unbearably-cold, and slightly-less-unbearably-cold..."

The 'most luxurious shower in City 17' consisted of a utilitarian, white-tiled cubicle, with a corrugated metal sheet leaned across where a curtain should have been. The aforementioned pump, hot water tank, and a generator were clustered haphazardly to the left of the shower, resulting in a boiler room aesthetic. "The pump makes a loud noise, it freaked me out the first time." Alyx continued. "Don't worry about it though."

Opposite the shower, a dusty kerosene lantern sat on the white-tiled sink counter, casting just enough light to make shower fixture operation possible. Freeman lifted the metal sheet that concealed the shower, and set it aside, surveying the small chamber. Some scavenged bottles of miscellaneous shower products stood on the floor. He turned to Alyx who was leaned against the sink vanity behind him. A silent moment passed. She realized he was waiting for her to leave.

"Oh, I'll go find you a towel." She said.

"Thanks," said Gordon, pressing and holding the HEV suit's exit button.

_"Exit procedure initiated,"_ announced the synthetic voice, _"please stand by,"_ followed by the electric squeals of tiny servos adjusting internally, and mechanical hums of descending pitch. Alyx lingered curiously a moment longer.

"What's it doing?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," He admitted, "but it tickles and it takes awhile." Alyx smiled and lifted a brow at his strange answer. He smiled back, relieving some awkwardness as he tried not to squirm. He could feel small mechanisms lifting and shifting across his torso- the sensors that tracked his vital signs retracting. Something pinched, then unpinched near the morphine injection site on his arm.

_"Exit procedure complete. Powering down. Have a nice day_." The suit loosened its grip on him and relaxed into lifeless fabric and armor plates. It felt like actual clothing again and no longer an extension of himself. Immediately, he was far less comfortable and was eager to get it off. He reached back behind his neck and unlocked the zipper, drawing it down an inch before casting a pointed look at Alyx.

"Right," she said, "towel, I'm on it." She knew how exposed this bathroom felt-luxurious as it may have been in the context of a bombed out city. The bathroom's door had been blown off the hinges at some point. Just an open frame in a wounded wall. The shower itself had always been door-less, and open to the room. Hence the metal sheet as a make-shift-curtain solution.

Alyx descended the stairs, but she was still mentally in the room with him. She couldn't help but wonder how he really looked. That suit fit him like a glove. From the silhouette it revealed, she could see he was at least reasonably fit. She pictured him lean, maybe cut and muscular- or maybe that was ridiculous. He was a physicist after all, not an athlete. But then again, he had not been sitting at a desk job in a long time. She redrew possible torsos for him in her mind, smirking girlishly to herself about the possibilities. She wanted to see what the reality was, even if it would turn out to be disappointing.

Gordon finally managed to peel the HEV suit off his feet, and draped it over the empty towel rack on the wall to the right of the shower. His unsheathed skin tensed and shivered against the cold night air. He hurriedly fiddled with the shower fixture. The pump roared awake, making him jump slightly, he shot a glance to the dark doorway. No one was there, of course. He had never felt more naked in his life.

With a few adjustments, the water stabilized at a reasonable warmth. He stepped under the stream and pulled the metal sheet into place. It did not quite cover the whole shower, a few inches were left exposed on one side. Probably necessary, he thought, as it allowed some light in. He had positioned it so the line of the site to the open bathroom doorway was blocked by it, at least.

The pleasantness of the warm water swaddled him in relief, drawing out a long blissful sigh from Gordon. Rivers of comfort rolled down his back and legs as he selected a colorful bottle from the floor, and cracked it open. Its powerful artificial mountain-pine scent breezed coolly through his nasal passages into his lungs, replacing the dust and smoke of City 17. The shower gel washed refreshingly over his normally suit-sealed skin. There was something natural and relaxing about this routine that he had almost forgotten since the world had fallen apart.

His glasses began to fog over, and he feared he might knock them off as he shampooed near his ears. Shattered glasses in the apocalypse would not be easy to replace, nor easy to do without. He folded them and searched for a safe place to set them.

_CLANG! CLANG!_ "Hey Gordon," Alyx said, wrapping on the metal sheet, partially to announce her presence, and partially to frighten her jumpy friend. "I got your towel. I'll just put it on the rack." Gordon had indeed panicked at the abrupt noise, but registered a moment later that she was messing with him, and felt silly.

Alyx was now visible through the gap left open by the metal sheet's inadequate coverage. She was not looking in his direction though. He watched her shift his suit to one side of the rack, to make room for the towel. She looked amazing, bathed in the soft lantern glow. She always looked amazing though. Without his glasses, she was a bit fuzzy around the edges. He leaned to increase his field of view, and squinted her into focus. This was the first time he had been able to really take her in, without fear of her noticing a prolonged stare.

They had caught each other looking a time or two in their excursions together. Gordon had felt her eye contact linger a second longer than was normal between friends. She would smile and look away soon after, an almost imperceptible signal of interest. But enough to make a man wonder. Gordon also knew he was guilty of enjoying how well she fit in her jeans, everytime she ran ahead or lead him somewhere. She had noticed once, but chided him only with a raised eyebrow.

And then there was _that_ moment. "_Hey Gordon_," she had said, as Dr. Kleiner prattled on about fertility suppression fields, "_You doin' anything later?" _Gordon had mulled the moment over again, and again. A joke? Probably. But, maybe not entirely. He felt their mutual interest was likely, but he also feared he could be interpreting her every move through a lens of hopefulness.

"Uh Hey," Gordon said, remembering his glasses predicament, "could you set these by the sink for me, please?" He reached his arm around the open side of the metal sheet, glasses in hand.

"Yeah sure," she responded. He felt her take the glasses from him as she walked away. As his arm retreated, it grazed the metal sheet, just enough to disturb its stability on the slippery wet floor.

_shkhkhkh CLANG!_ Both of them jumped as the metal sheet slid down and rattled flat on the floor. Alyx whirled instinctively toward the noise to see a fully HEV-suit-less Gordon, eyes comically wide with shock. He cowered to the side and censored himself with his hands.

Alyx covered her vision with her free hand, the other still clasping his glasses. "Sorry! Sorry!" she laughed as she turned away partially, embarrassed for him, but also entertained. She heard him clumsily struggling to set the flimsy tin back up.

She had seen everything. But so tantalizingly briefly. What she observed in that flash of a moment was promising, and demanded a second, more thorough ogling. Cautiously, she spied around the corner of her hand to find him standing half outside the shower, encouraging the metal to stay in place with both hands, and the edge of his foot at its base.

The golden light outlined the angles of his muscles appealingly. A daily routine of combat, plus miles of walking and vent crawling, had shaped him to be every bit as fit as she had guessed, though he was riddled with scars. How had she not thought to picture those? Bullets, blades, and claws had etched proof of their abuses across his anatomy.

Satisfied that the uncooperative metal barrier was secure again, Gordon carefully released it. Alyx felt her stomach jolt as he looked up from his task, directly at her. She quickly shut her eyes again, hoping he may not have noticed. "All good?" she asked.

Gordon did not answer. Alyx heard the hiss of the shower cease, and the towel thwip off the rack. She was not sure how to interpret his silence. Maybe she had violated a boundary and offended him. Maybe she should leave. Before she could decide, Gordon's response stopped her. "I saw that." He said quietly.

"Saw what?" Alyx lied, in a hesitantly playful tone. If she could not convince him of her innocence, maybe she could quip her way out of trouble. She opened one eye and turned tentatively to test if it was okay to look fully yet.

Gordon had wrapped the towel around his waist but had not dried off otherwise yet. Water dripped from his hair and beard. His face was lifted into an accusing smirk she had never seen on him before. She dropped all pretense of averting her eyes and adopted a, _who me?_ gesture of denial instead.

"I saw that." He repeated over his shoulder knowingly, as he carried his smirk back into the partial privacy of the cubical. She heard him continue the job of drying off.

"Oh _really_?" she retorted impishly, "What _exactly_ did you see, _Doctor Freeman_?" She folded her arms and leaned against the sink, still clutching his glasses, awaiting his re-emergence.

Gordon re-wrapped himself in the towel securely. He shoved the metal piece roughly out of the way, letting it clatter off to wherever, as if to punish it for betraying him. Alyx tried not to be too obvious about how often her eyes were darting down from his eye contact to inspect his exposed torso as he approached, but she was having difficulty avoiding the draw of this rare opportunity.

Gordon arrived in front of Alyx. He reached to the crook of her arm where his glasses rested in her fist. She offered them, and he gently lifted them from her fingers. "I saw you..." he said, as he flicked the glasses' arms open, "sneaking a little peak, _madam_." His piercing green eyes held smug, accusatory, eye contact as he slid the glasses onto his face.

Alyx feigned being taken aback dramatically. "Why-pffsh, wha-I would _never!_" She held her position briefly before betraying her guilt with a laugh. He met her banter dryly, continuing to pin her down with his gaze. She dropped her bit completely, "I'm sorry." she said honestly, shaking her head at herself. "That was dumb."

He studied her face. Her eye line kept flitting down and back up, as if she hoped that if she checked him out fast enough, he would not notice. Or, he thought, feeling flattered by her interest, maybe, she just could not help herself. Her attention made him glow with a rare confidence.

"Do you know what's more dumb?" He said, as he put a hand on the counter near her. He leaned in close, as if to tell a secret. "I just realized I didn't bring any other clothes up here."

Alyx snickered at this. Gordon chuckled back, pleased that he had made her laugh. Alyx was now too distracted by the intimate, soft rumble of his voice, and the proximity of his face to hers to think up a witty response. They locked eyes for a few heart skipping seconds. The laughter stopped. The shield of humor was dropped.

"I don't think that's a problem," breathed Alyx, finding her wit again before leaning in so his lips met hers. Her hand gently guided him to the kiss, with fingers laced through his wet hair. Gordon inhaled through his nose deeply, lifting his posture, surprised. The hand Gordon had been leaning on, traveled up Alyx's back.

They broke the kiss seconds later, breathing through skipping heartbeats, and resting their foreheads together as they processed this revelation of confirmed mutual attraction. Alyx's hands had found their way to those pecs she had been so curious about. She inhaled the new freshness of his scent. Gordon hesitantly trickled his fingers over her hair and came to rest at the back of her neck. Alyx's lips grazed his beard as they wandered back to his mouth.

Gordon's thoughts hazed away as the feel of her body beneath her soft cotton clothes, the heat of her contact, and sweetness of her feminine scent became his world. She was more than beautiful to him, she was Alyx Vance. The one who could make him feel invincible. A few simple words of encouragement from her would carry him through hopeless battles, that an HEV suit alone never could. And, judging by the way her hands explored and traced the lines of his neck and shoulders as they kissed, he could finally be sure, she was pretty enamored with him, as well.

Feeling bold, Gordon opened the kiss so their tongues began to meet. He advanced closer to her, resulting in his hips lightly pinning hers to the sink counter. Alyx gasped a small laugh, surprised at his brashness. "_Doctor Freeman!_" she pretended to scold, her voice lilting melodramatically.

Gordon smiled and dropped his head, lightly abashed at his own eagerness. "Hey, you started it." He defended, leaning in to resume.

"Me?!" played Alyx, in fake indignation, as she ventured down to his neck, kissing and nibbling between her words, "You came over...in your...half nakedness…" Freeman laughed, before lolling his head back, as a rush of blood overtook him. "...And you leaned in…" she continued teasing him, "with your devilish smile…"

Her seduction story stopped, as she noticed a new development where his towel met her cotton pajama pants. One of her hands rested idly on his back muscles. She decided to re-assign this hand a reconnaissance mission.

Her fingers traced down to hook the brim of his towel, then teasingly traveled its inner edge to the front. Gordon looked down at her with wide eyes, now surprised by _her_ brashness. Alyx looked up to flash him a daring grin.

Gordon suddenly seemed uncomfortable. He looked around, distracted.

"Sorry, moving too fast?" Alyx asked, confused by his hesitation.

"No," he surveyed the gaping entrance to the room. This was a public shower for anyone at the base, after all. An accidental intrusion was not out of the question. "This is just a horrible place for this."

"Yeah," she agreed, acknowledging the less-than-sanitary, damp, tiled surfaces surrounding them, and bits of crumbling wall scattered on the neglected floor. "It's pretty nasty."

Alyx released his towel, lay her head in the crook of Gordon's neck, and sighed, thinking. Gordon encircled her with his arms, unsure of what to do. Alyx could feel his heart pounding powerfully, and a rigid resistance still pleading for attention below. She traced his clavicle with her fingers, not yet satisfied with how much she had explored.

"My room?" Alyx suggested.

Gordon felt a flutter of adrenaline race through him at the invitation. "_Yeah!_" he breathed, his voice pitched a little higher than he had expected. Alyx started pulling him toward the exit by the forearm. He followed a few steps, then remembered to stumble back and snatch the HEV suit from the wrack before continuing on.

Gordon could not believe his luck as Alyx led him down the stairs and through a series of halls, turning to cast devious smiles back at him. A light from the kitchen was spilling into the hallway ahead. Someone was up.

Gordon hoped they could slip by without being noticed. He was not in the mood to stop for a conversation with whoever was in there about why he was in a towel, following Alyx Vance, clearly in the direction of her room. Nor did he look forward to enduring their relentless ribbing about it in the morning, good natured as it might be.

Alyx strode past the door without hesitation. Gordon dropped her hand and attempted a relaxed posture, to avoid projecting that anything sneaky was going on, as he broke into the light.

"_Ahhhh._ The Free Man, and the Alyx Vanccce." Gordon froze at the hiss of the vortigaunt's voice. He maneuvered the flaccid HEV suit to sheild the tell-tale topology of his groin from a collection of scrutinizing, red eyes. Three vortigaunts sat around a table, conversing and playing some sort of card game.

"The Free Man goes to fornicate with the Alyx Vance, _yesss_." commented one of them, shamelessly. Gordon was flabbergasted by the vortigaunt's forwardness.

_"Yessss!"_ their chorus of agreements cascaded over one another.

"The wise Free Man knowsss the fertility suppression field has dissipated!" said one.

"_Yesss._ The propagation of his species is important." agreed another.

"Wait!? Ha! _No_, we're not planning on..._propagating!_" Freeman protested, mortified.

"The Free Man does a heroic deed for his human kin! _Yesss..."_ they went on.

_"_Always a selflesss one the Free Man is!_"_

"C'mon, _Free-Man_," Alyx interrupted, dragging Gordon away from his vein efforts to save face by the arm. "Your civic duty awaits," she snickered.

_"Yesssss, the Free man must go!"_ A vortigaunt urged from behind them, as the pair continued down the hall,

_"We wish the Free Man successs in his noble endeavour! Yessss!"_

* * *

End.  
I am not normally brave enough to post my creative writing. I really appreciate you reading it to the end! Hope you enjoyed it.


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